For years, movie musicals have asked deaf viewers to meet songs halfway through captions. Now, The Walt Disney Company is taking a different approach. On April 27, Disney+ released three animated musical sequences reimagined in American Sign Language for National Deaf History Month. 

Instead of treating access as an afterthought, Disney made ASL part of the animation itself so viewers can follow the meaning and emotion of each song directly as intended on screen.

ASL is a fully visual language where hand shape, movement, facial expression and body position all carry meaning, serving hundreds of thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing people across the U.S. and parts of Canada. 

In most films, ASL users rely on captions to follow dialogue, plot points and lyrics. While captions help, songs move quickly and depend on tone and rhythm, which means nuance and emotion can get lost in translation. This creates an accessibility gap that captions do not solve.

Disney’s project, “Songs in Sign Language,” reanimated three songs from the movies “Frozen 2,” “Encanto” and “Moana 2.” The songs are: “The Next Right Thing,” “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and “Beyond.”

The project team chose songs from recent films so they could reopen original animation files and rebuild scenes to support clear and accurate signing. 

Hyrum Osmond directed the project with producers Heather Blodget and Christina Chen, working closely with performers from the Deaf West Theatre to shape authentic and expressive signing. 

Instead of placing signs over existing footage, over 20 animators studied custom ASL references created with deaf performers and rebuilt the scenes from the ground up, a decision that ultimately shaped the entire process. 

The animation crew adjusted the animation timing, movement and facial expressions so the signing would read clearly. 

In many scenes, they created new animations because ASL depends on the face as much as the hands. The team also focused on meaning instead of word-for-word translation. This approach reflected how ASL works in practice, making the songs feel more natural and useful for the Deaf community.

Disney’s creative animation process stands out at a time when many viewers question the use of artificial intelligence in animation, as well as the legitimacy of the content it produces. 

Early reactions to the project questioned whether it was done entirely through AI or the work of human passion, but once behind-the-scenes footage showed artists reanimating each of the scenes by hand, the response shifted toward strong support from fans online. 

Viewers felt drawn to the human effort behind the project and saw it as thoughtful and respectful because the project was more than merely an algorithm doing the work. 

Fans’ reactions online pointed to something larger. By focusing on expressive movement and clear emotion, Disney returned to a style many associate with its earlier storytelling. Viewers have responded positively, noting both the care in the craft and the stronger messaging. 

The project gave deaf audiences something rarely seen in mainstream animation: characters who communicate in their own language as part of the story itself.